Grandma from Farm to Fair

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The Grandma of our story is Grandma Moses, of course. Her style of painting so special and so recognizable makes her one of the great names of American folk art. One could even say that she has become a legend since the art market discovered her in 1938, when she was only 78 years old. She lived a centenarian, without ever interrupting her new artistic career.

Too busy during her working life, she could not devote to painting until she retired. She shows the life in the countryside with a myriad of details. The horizon is wide, and lack of perspective makes it seeming near by.

No character is shown in close-up but they are finely drawn, and we can see the specific activity of each one. The comparison made with Pieter Brueghel by Wikipedia is exaggerated, because the characters of Grandma are not sufficiently differentiated. Rather, she is the rural equivalent of the English painter LS Lowry, who had us visiting Manchester at the same time in one of our first articles in this group.

The oil on canvas for sale by Sotheby's on May 21 in New York, 89 x 114 m, shows a village fair in 1950. More colorful than other important works of the artist, it deserves its estimate of 700 K $.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Counting the cost, our Grandma reached the million dollars: just $ 1.08 million. The estimate has been exceeded. It's good, because this painting was particularly lively and colorful.